PSYCHEDELICS - Sciencemadness.org

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____________________________________________________ Psychedelics
is through the use of psychedelic drugs. In addition to other
factors, to be discussed below, favorably influencing feelings
about impending death, it has been shown that LSD does
limit the impact of anticipation on human activity. The importance
of the moment and the immediate sensory input accompanying
it outweigh considerations of the future, no matter
how dismal they may be. In order to explore the value of
LSD in the treatment of "death," the following study was
undertaken.
In dealing therapeutically with a topic of such finality and
depth as death, it is difficult to follow the usual format of a
scientific presentation. Of necessity one must treat the ma-
terial from a more holistic and philosophic standpoint. The
investigations in this report were designed to make the last
months of patients with a terminal illness more meaningful
and less distressful.
Before attempting to increase the meaning of the last days
of a patient's life, one must first ask basic, fundamental ques-
tions:
1. Is any interference at this time justified?
2. If so, what direction should such interference take?
3 . How much will it interfere with the religious and philo-
sophic attitudes of the patient?
While observing patients during the final months of life,
one can see certain defense mechanisms developing in an at-
tempt either to structure death and subsequent "existence" or
to deny all possibility of death and assume an eerie positiv-
ism that seems surrealistic in character (Field, 1956). The
usual clinical approach to death is by a combination of both,
and it seems to take an extraordinary toll of a person's ability
to relate to his environment and communicate with his fam-
ily. He becomes isolated and is deprived, to a large extent,
of his ability to experience realistically and deeply these last
months or weeks of greatest importance in his life. Therefore,
interference seems justified if it enables the patient to see
and feel with greater intensity. Of course, such medicinal in-
terference must not tamper with the patient's religious ideas
and must have the latitude to permit any philosophic inter-
pretation. This study attempts to explore LSD as a means